Didier Robert de Vaugondy (1723-1786) was Royal Geographer and Censor in France (Tooley, 541). The Robert de Vaugondy family was descended from the Nicolas Sanson family and had much of his map plates. The family combined his plates with those of Hubert Jaillot's plates after his death in 1712. Combining the map plates and thoroughly revising the earlier engravings, the family created the "Atlas Universal" (1750-1757) (Moreland and Bannister, 136). Didier's work includes: "Mexico" (1749), "Maps in Atlas Universal" (1750-1757), "Nouvel Atlas portative" (1784), and "America Septentrionale" (1761). His atlases were later reissued by Delamarche (Tooley, 541).

This map was first created by Didier Robert de Vaugondy in 1772 and published in 1774 within a collection of nine other maps depicting various versions of northwestern North America and the possibility of a Northwest Passage. All ten maps were published in a supplement to Robert de Vaugondy's "Encylopedie" in 1779 (Phillips, 627). According to Robert de Vaugondy's notes in the "Avertisement" section of the map, the map and its inset were based on two maps by Claes Jansz Visscher; the large map based on one from 1612 and the inset based on a planisphere published by Visscher in 1641. Wagner notes that the first date is most likely an error. He adds that the names for places on the map follow Cabrillo. He also notes that Cape Mendocino is shown at 42 degrees north latitude (Wagner, 341-2, entry 632, entry 637). The unusual inset is of note due to its depiction of the "entire west" as "Mexicana" (Wheat, 148, 221, entry 159).